On Monday, in the House of Lords, a question was asked by Lord Walton of Detchant about when the Government was going to get round to dualling the A1 to the Scottish Border. The man charged with replying was the Earl Attlee, the Government's spokesman on transport in the Lords.
Perhaps it is my own failing for not having made contact with him myself before now, but I was horrified by his reply to Lord Detchant, which basically said that there was a perfectly good road from Newcastle along the A69 to Carlisle and north into Scotland that way, so what was all the fuss about and no, the Government weren't planning on dualling it.
Well not only is this a shocking dismissal of the North East as a region, a key player in the future profitability of UK plc, the only region with a positive balance of trade, exports up each quarter. But it also showed up the attitude of civil servants in the Department for Transport who have sidelined Transport Infrastructure investment in the North East to the point where the south east received £2,731 per head, but the North East only £5 per head (Data from IPPR North) last year.
It is necessary for our government not only to talk about rebalancing the economy across the country, but also to enact that worthy ideal by getting civil servants to follow through on projects which will actually help to do that. HS2 (a huge investment over 20 years) will help reach those central towns of Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester - but contrary to popular belief in London, there is a whole further stretch of England North of Leeds through Teesside, Tyne & Wear, Cumbria & Northumberland which have enormous potential but have been starved of critical infrastructure.
I have invited Lord Attlee to come to the North East and see and hear for himself just what its all about, this "dualling the A1" thing. I have policemen lining up to offer him a guided tour of the route in question, I have campaigners who have lost loved ones clamouring to talk to him directly, and I have countless businesses willing to explain to him exactly what this investment COULD do for the economy of UK plc and rebalancing the nation's dependence away from the South East and into Northern manufacturing and new private sector service industries.
It's 40 years since I left Newcastle for Yorkshire, but when visiting friends in the North East, en route to Edinburgh and Scotland, I would consider the A1, the A697 via Wooler, or the A68 over Carter Bar before even thinking of crossing towards Carlisle.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the traffic I've encountered on all these roads is typical. The A1 certainly needs dualling - and the A69 heading west needs the same if it were to be a serious alternative route - and that would probably be more expensive.
I can understand that Lord Attlee may not have travelled these roads himself, being so far from London. However, he surely has enough general knowledge to have questioned his prepared answer before giving it!